22 Pelican crossings. These are signal-controlled crossings operated by pedestrians. Push the control button to activate the traffic signals. When the red figure shows, do not cross. When a steady green figure shows, check the traffic has stopped then cross with care. When the green figure begins to flash you should not start to cross. If you have already started you should have time to finish crossing safely.

And if you are too busy texting someone whilst crossing, then you shouldn't be in the gene pool anyway.

True. Driving or walking and texting anywhere for that matter is definitely an evolution in action event level activity. People thought the city should be at fault when some girl texted her way right into a missing manhole cover (someone stole it to sell as scrap metal) and I sided with the city. They didn't remove it so it wasn't anything they did wrong and she should've been watching where she was walking. I grew up in a farm, cow pies everywhere, you learn to look where you step. Maybe walking texters should be forced to spend a day on the farm in a pasture as I think that will cure them of the habit real quick.

in my town its cars or die, i bike every day and my head is on a swivel for someone running me down.. sidewalk is my friend and the road for when nobody is around.... and when in the road go as fast as you can, speed limit or above.

makes for a hell of a workout.

cars are good for nothing except to run you over, thats my motto and im still breathing.

In the Vehicle Code of the jurisdiction where I live, there is a recurring piece of boilerplate that says-- I paraphrase-- Even when you have the absolute legal right of way, you are still expected to use the brains God gave you.

cars are good for nothing except to run you over

Huh. My main fear is people opening their (parked) car doors right in front of me. Flipping over a car door is much less funny in real life than it is in the movies.

i bike every day and my head is on a swivel for someone running me down

I have nothing against bikers, pedestrians or others motorists - unless they think the rules of the road and all signs don't apply to them and then it's GAME ON!

The bikers here think stop signs apply to everyone but them when it comes to 4-way stops or anything less than a major intersection with actual street lights. Buddy of mine pulled out to make a right hand turn a few years ago and intersected with a stop sign running biker that hit the side of his car, made a nice dent, and FLEW over the hood. He must've been drinking Red Bull because he certainly had wings when he intersected my friends car. They took him away in an ambulance and I'll bet he had better respect for stop signs after that.

There's a 4-way stop close to my house that bikers always ignore and when I see them screaming down the sidewalk heading toward that intersection I tend to make real slow turns looking to get a new hood ornament of my own. :)

I used to read while walking. Books. Remember those? Dead trees? From the library? But you learn to keep half an eye on the road so you don't step in something that's, uhm, a different color from the surrounding pavement.

Where I live, they have a special kind of bike helmet that's blessed by the Vatican so when you're wearing it you are safe from all harm no matter what you do. (I'm not sure of this detail; it may be some other entity performing an analogous function.) I wish I knew where they sell them. I'm stuck just following the law. I walk across the busier intersections, which gives me the legal right to give dirty looks to the long stream of cars that don't stop.

Helps, of course, that the local police don't "do" traffic. So cars can zip past the police station or courthouse and make an unsignaled left turn without stopping, and nothing will happen to them. And yes, those non-stopping cars include police cars in ordinary, non-active-pursuit mode.

I once saw a fire truck stopped at a red light. An active one, in lights-and-sirens mode. It was only for a moment-- the cars with the green light all duly stopped-- but it was still depressing that it had to stop at all.

:: now back to worrying because forum next door has been offline all day and I'm sure there wasn't any announcement about planned maintenance ::

Injuries to distracted walkers have quadrupled in the past seven years, according to emergency room numbers, and that's likely a low estimate because either patients don't admit a cell phone was involved or doctors don't include that sort of detail on hospital reports.

Let's see the MATH => before walkers could text there were 0 injuries from texting and walking and then it quadrupled so 0 x 4 = 0. Maybe they meant they had 4 whole injuries? :)

I once saw a fire truck stopped at a red light. An active one, in lights-and-sirens mode. It was only for a moment-- the cars with the green light all duly stopped-- but it was still depressing that it had to stop at all.

Standard procedure over here to verify that the traffic with the official right of way has actually stopped.

Which is better, 10 seconds additional time or non arrival due to a crash?

unless they think the rules of the road and all signs don't apply to them and then it's GAME ON!

The bikers here think stop signs apply to everyone but them when it comes to 4-way stops or anything less than a major intersection with actual street lights

I agree 100%... except I use stop sighs as a way to GET AHEAD and FARTHER away, if there is some serious traffic i'll stop and use traffic laws but if its just me and someone else, bye bye, i'll look 20 ways and make eye contract and jet.

and if a car is coming and the other lane is open... i'l jump into the incomming traffic... other cars can pass without moving around me and everyone is happy... when the road is busy, SIDEWALK.

im looking to go fast, if I can't ride the speed limit I get out of the way..... and pass plenty of other morons in the road taking stroll pretending to be.... lance arm.....whatever, im fast and hate cars.